How Can Avengers: Secret Wars Be A Prequel To Logan?

Believe it or not, MCU’s Avengers: Secret Wars could very well be a prequel to Logan movie. Find out how.

By Mohit Srivastava
January 3,2023
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After months of speculation and theorizing, Marvel finally revealed plans for their next saga – ‘The Multiverse Saga’. At SDCC 2022, Marvel Studios President – Kevin Feige, presented the road map for all of Marvel’s Disney+ and theatrical releases till the end of Phase 6 in 2026. All the projects seemed to be heading toward their one culmination with – Avengers: Secret Wars. Also, Marvel plans to introduce the mutants or the X-Men into the MCU soon (subtle hints are already being dropped). Maybe both of these have some connection. Perhaps the previous X-Men movies somehow get fitted into the current timeline. The possibilities are endless. So, let’s explore the most amazing one – Could Avengers: Secret Wars be a prequel to Logan?

Logan

Wolverine’s death in Logan

Directed by James Mangold and starring Hugh Jackman as the titular character, this 2017 superhero flick was a raging success at the box office.  The movie was the tenth film in Fox’s X-Men series and was the third and final installment in the Wolverine trilogy following X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) and The Wolverine (2013). It follows an aged and weak Wolverine (aka Logan) accompanied by the extremely ill and unstable Charles Xavier (Ser Patrick Stewart) who decides to defend a young mutant named Laura (Dafne Keen) from the Reavers led by Donald Pierce and Zander Rice. The movie ends with the death of both Xavier and Logan. Logan was heavily inspired by Mark Miller’s and Steve McNiven’s – “Old Man Logan”.

The movie is said to occur in 2029. As the movie progresses, one of the key points that we learn is that Charles Xavier (aka Professor X) now suffers from dementia that causes him to have destructive telepathic seizures, one of which seemingly had injured 600 people and killed several X-Men the year prior. Although no concrete reason was given in Logan as to how exactly the whole ‘mutant-homicide’ happened and what triggered it, was it really Charles? There could be a variety of answers to this. However, we have a very crazy theory in mind.

Avengers: Secret Wars – a prequel in disguise

Secret Wars comics

Before we go further, we need to take into our consideration some of the latest developments in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). First, it was announced that the final movie of ‘The Multiverse Saga’ and Phase 6 of MCU – Avengers: Secret Wars is currently set for a theatrical release on May 1st, 2026. Secondly, while announcing Deadpool 3 with Hugh Jackman returning to play Wolverine, our good Canadian kid – Ryan Reynolds announced that the movie “shall occur in the current MCU timeline and will not interfere with the storyline or ending of Logan movie.”

These two statements when considered together open a bunch of possibilities. In the Secret Wars comics, the entire world was transformed into Battleworld where various superheroes battled against each other for Beyonder’s amusement. However, the repercussions of this storyline were huge for Marvel. At the end of the event while the Marvel Universe is reset…Miles Morales became an Earth prime regular, the Fantastic Four leave earth for good, Wakanda is established in space, Tony Stark ditches his powers, Dr. Doom is redeemed, a new Avengers team is formed, and Namor is killed.

A ‘wild’ connection

Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackmann

We cannot say that 2026’s flick shall have similar consequences. But one thing is sure, if Kevin Feige is planning to end ‘The Multiverse Saga’ with a Secret Wars story, major shake-ups are guaranteed. Now, coming back to Logan’s connection. As can be seen from the latest projects, Marvel is not shying up in the usage of the term ‘Mutants’ in its projects. Ever since the ‘Fox-Marvel’ merger, the arrival of mutants in the MCU was evident. Upcoming releases like X-Men ’97 (an animated Disney+ series) and Deadpool 3 are clearly the first green flags.

It may happen that, in 2026, in the Avengers: Secret Wars mutants are finally introduced in the MCU. Thereafter, from Phase 7 onwards, a new journey (possibly ‘The Mutant Saga’) begins by keeping these X-Men at the core of the story. This new saga shall continue till 2029 (possibly till Phase 9), at the end of which another huge culminating event (based on huge comic storylines) like – ‘The Last Stand’, or ‘Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe’, or ‘Avengers vs X-Men’, or ‘Civil Wars II’, shall lead to the death of all the mutants again. This would bring us back to the events of Logan, exactly in the timeline!

If that really is so, fans will die with sheer amazement at Feige’s brilliance in linking the dangling threads. It would be one hell of a treat to watch and it shall be adored for generations. Of course, as of today, it’s nothing but every nerd’s wet dream! Hopefully, upcoming MCU projects shall make the roadmap clear.